A Fine Mess (Brimstone Book 7) by Angel Martinez

Author:Angel Martinez [Martinez, Angel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Julian had never been more frightened in his life. While Corny had taught him to ride horses, the equine facing him was as far from a horse as a jetpack was from a battle cruiser. Her hooves were the size of serving platters. The top of her saddle was half a meter above Julian's head. She had fangs and she breathed fire.

"Never seen a fucking nightmare before, Parallax?"

Verin's voice behind him nearly propelled his heart through his throat. "Honestly? No. Can't say I ever have."

"Stupid, neurotic humans."

Before Julian could skip out of the way, protest, or even scream, Verin took him by the waist and tossed him up into the saddle so hard Julian nearly fell off the other side. He did manage at the last moment to catch the pommel and saved himself the embarrassment of landing headfirst in the snow.

"There. That wasn't so damn hard, was it?" Verin threw a hand out to indicate the nightmare next to Julian's. "Corny's doing fine with his."

"She's a mite bigger than he's acquainted with, Ver. Go easy." Corny leaned out of the saddle to pat Verin's shoulder. "I wouldn't try an' steer her, Julian. Let her follow the herd."

"Right. Hold on. Don't fall off and get trampled by giant hell horses. I'll do my best." Julian found the stirrups and tried to settle comfortably as he patted his nightmare's neck. "Nice, monstrous equine."

Verin stomped, off muttering about it being too cold for this shit, and mounted his own nightmare with practiced ease. Shax was already up, handling his mount like he'd been born on the back of one. To be fair, demon princes did start riding young. Ness helping Kendra up made Julian feel slightly less ridiculous, though Ness himself wouldn't ride. He had wings, after all.

On a nightmare even larger than the rest of her herd, Baphomet rode to the head of his small army. One arm thrust skyward, and the swarm of cave kin took flight in a rattle of leathern wings. Julian had spent more time with hell denizens than most living humans did, but some of them still gave him the creeping horrors.

Can't escape species memory entirely, I suppose.

Two more silent gestures left and right sent packs of hellhounds in those directions, off to block escape to the spaceport and to the warehouse. The hounds were a little less disturbing. Mostly, they looked like pony-sized mastiffs. Until one caught sight of their burning red eyes and massive dragon talons.

Shax reined his nightmare over and leaned out of the saddle to pat Julian's. "They gave Julian the prettiest nightmare, didn't they? Who's a good girl?"

She nuzzled at his hand with a strange, growling whicker. Maybe she was beautiful by hell standards. Most of the nightmares were black. His was a soot gray dappled with scarlet. Or maybe Shax was trying to make him feel better in some odd way.

"Julian…"

"Don't you dare say it." Julian spoke softly but not gently. "I'm going."

"Ah. Well." Shax blinked at him in what looked like sincere surprise.

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